Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh My

Ok so maybe we didn't see tigers or bears, but this 'jingle' was in my head the entire time in Zambia.... well that and songs from the Lion King.....

We just returned from our Safari in South Luanga National Park, which was to this day the most incredible thing I have ever done! It still almost feels surreal, and definitely did while in the truck seeing all the animals and SO CLOSE!! ... I don't want to get ahead of myself so I'll start from departure.

We left the Kiboko Hotel in Lilongwe on Thursday at 8:30 (July 3rd) and arrived to the Track & Trail River Camp around 3:30. We had to stop numerous times, including twice at the border... yes twice. We had to go through Malawi Immigration to get our exit stamps in our passports and then drive 30 seconds over 'no-man's land' to the Zambian border (that's right they're not the same borders) and get our entry visas. It was $50 US to enter. There were 12 of us on the safari, 6 in each vehicle, inlcuding a couple from Spain, a couple from Germany, as well as an Aussie and a Scott. The girl from Scottland has a Brittish Passport and was made to pay $120 US. The border agent said that it has become so difficult for African's to enter England, that they were now charging Brits more than double - how crazy is that! Anyway, then we went to exchange some money for drinks and anything else we wanted to buy while in Zambia... I bought a bit too much at the textile place on our way home today.... but gifts too, not all for me.... Their Kwacha is 3200 per US dollar, and everything was comparable in price to things here in Malawi, so cheap.

So after settling in at the camp (2 people per tent), we had an amazing dinner, probably the best tomato soup I've ever had in my life!! Along with a man course, but the soup was just so good! We went to bed early as our next two days had the following schedules: 5 am wake-up, 5:30 breakfast, 6:00 - 10:00 first safari, 11:30 brunch, 12 - 3:30 relax by the pool, around river, bar, etc., 3:30 snack before our 4:00pm departure for our night-time safari. Dinner was served at 8 and I'm sure we were all sound asleep by 9. In total we did approx. 18 hours of safari... and I never got sick of it! I loved it... so now on to the animals!

We became pretty used to seeing monkeys, baboons, impala, and other deer-like animals the first morning, all worrying that we weren't going to see THE BIG FIVE! Then Annelise saw a giraffe and it was nuts - huge and we got so close, likely within 5 metres and I took so many pictures! Next we saw 3 elephants and got probably within 2 metres. They leave the trucks running so that if the elephants start to charge we can back up.... and IT DID... that's right, the elephant fanned it's ears to make themselves look bigger lifted it's trunk and started towards us..... and I got it all filmed, along with the sounds of us screaming because we were all so scared, haha. It was fine though, the tour guides definitely know what they're doing. That night our goal was to see a lion and instead of seeing one we saw an entire pride, including cubs... they we're so cute, just like Simba (Lion King).... oh and speaking of Lion King there were tons of Pumba's as well (warthogs) I'm definitely watching that movie again when I'm back in Canada. Anyway we came really close to them as well to the point that it looked as if the lionesses would leap at us any second, their eyes were just staring directly at us. The cubs were playing too, oh I just wanted to pick them up to cuddle... don't worry... I didn't. They say the chances of seeing a lion is 50% so we were really lucky. That night we also got to see zebras which I was a lot more excited about than I thought I would be, considering my fear of horses... they seemed so peaceful though...

The next morning our tour guide was stopped by a South African in the park who had just come from where another pack of lions killed a buffalo. One of the lionesses had a snare caught around it's chest (from poacher's) so he used our radio to call the vet. We went directly to the scene and it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen - almost like watching the Discovery Channel or National Geographic but within meters... the pack of lions consisted of maybe 3 or 4 lionesses and then several younger lions all of which took turns tearing the buffalo apart. I have this filmed too and in the video you can actually here the muscle tearing and the bones breaking. The fact that we got to see two packs of lions was just insane! As we neared our last safari (last night) our tour guide was determined to show us a leopard as well as hyenas (both of which are somewhat diffcult to see). The chances of seeing a leopard is 20%, and of course, since we had the best tour guide EVER we got to see both, together! The first leopard we saw was pretty far away and difficult to see with only the spotlight from the truck but then we went off the path (which isn't really allowed - but most drivers don't care)... and we found a group of three together. The one we came really close to was so calm and just layed there posing.... it was by far the most beautiful creature we saw... then we heard hyenas coming and apparently since they are scavengers when a leopard catches something it has to hurry up a tree or the hyenas will come to steal it, and that is exactly what happened. A leopard killed an impala and before we knew it there were over 10 hyenas all around us fighting over different limbs of the impala and doing their creepy little laugh (exactly like from the Lion King, haha, serioulsy, so creepy). Our tour guide has been doing safaris in the park for over 17 years and said he had never seen anything like this and once again thanks to my amazing camera from Parson's Foto Source (haha, I thought I'd throw that in there for ya Dave) I got the entire thing filmed and as clear as could be! I can't wait to show everyone what we got to see within metres of these incredible creatures.

I kept changing my mind between which animals were my favourite between the giraffes (probably saw over 20), the elephants (maybe saw over 40 throughout the 2 days) and cubs... but the leopard, now set in stone - is definitely my favourite. Oh I forgot the buffalo, we saw lots of them too, but they weren't as exciting, their horns were just massive. So of the big five we saw... oh ya hippos too, tons of hippos, and definitely another favourite, how did I forget them? anyway of the Big Five we saw hippos, elephants, buffalo, lions, and apparently you can't see rhinos any more in this park.... but four of the five is pretty good and then some!

I really want to post pictures/movies very soon as well as a journal entry I wrote about Canada Day - it was an extremely memorable day here in Malawi, a Canada Day I will never forget!

I hope you've enjoyed this blog, and could handle my enthusiasm, it was just so surreal (I wish I could think of a better adjective) ... I recommend Kiboko Safaris to absolutely anyone (old or young) that comes to Africa - it is something I will hold close to me the rest of my life, and hopefully, it won't be the last safari i'll be on.

xo sending all my love from Malawi

Michelle